1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for obtaining image data of a subject and, more particularly, to a technique of obtaining image data by a digital camera or the like.
2. Description of the Background Art
Hitherto, image processes are performed to correct the hue or atmosphere of an image obtained as digital data by an image input device such as a digital camera. A representative one of such processes is a color correction based on white balance. In the correction based on white balance, an image is corrected based on the overall balance of the color of the image so that a white body will appear to be white. This allows the influence of the color of illuminant light on the subject to be removed from the image to some extent, and the image is corrected to one that agrees with the eyesight of human beings.
The conventional correction of the hue of an image is performed uniformly on the entire image. The data of the original image and data related to the correction of the hue are not therefore separately treated. For example, the corrected image is integrally stored as brightness information of RGB.
On the other hand, in some cases, it is desired to correct the hue of an image in order to impart a sense given by the image to an observer to another image. To be specific, in some cases, it is desired to use the atmosphere produced by the illumination environment at the time of capturing an image in an image captured in another illumination environment. The illumination environment is defined here as an environment related to illumination in which not only the characteristics of a light source but also the conditions around the subject are taken into consideration.
Since the data of an image is, however, conventionally treated as integral data, the atmosphere produced by the illumination environment in an image cannot be used by another image. Further, in the case of trying to achieve an environment produced by a specific illumination environment by correcting the hue of the image, an unnatural image is produced only by uniformly changing the hue of the entire image.